Ukrainian Jews rally against Iran

KIEV (JTA) — The Ukrainian Jewish Committee held a rally to protest Iran’s nuclear program and its threats to Israel and the United States.

More than 20 committee members demonstrated Tuesday across from the Iranian Embassy in Kiev.

The protesters held posters reading “The president of Iran is a threat to world safety” and “No to the trade cooperation between Ukraine and Iran!” They condemned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s verbal attack on Israel and his Holocaust denial.

The committee called on Ukrainian nongovernmental and governmental organizations, companies, citizens and leaders to rally together in opposition to such a grave threat as the danger of nuclear Iran.

“We should use all instruments to stop Iran’s nuclear program development," demonstration leader Eduard Dolinsky, the director general of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, told JTA. "So the issue can be solved on the streets, in the political arena, through the efforts and resolve of nongovernmental organizations and of ordinary concerned citizens.

“We also ask the Ukrainian government to abstain from trade development between the two countries and observe all standards of the export control of technologies which can be used in Iran for military aims. We express our concern over aircraft memorandum, according to which Iran can buy and build midrange Ukrainian An-148 passenger jets and modern aircraft engineering technologies.”

The Ukrainian Jewish Committee called on world governments and the international community to toughen control and punitive sanctions against Iran to stop its nuclear program development and prevent a second Holocaust.

“Iran’s nuclear program development and the rise of radical Islam are the greatest problem and threat of annihilation of mankind and destruction of the State of Israel,” lawmaker Aleksandr Feldman, the president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, told JTA.